Video: Specialized's New Budget DH Bike

Starting at just under $2,500, the Status series from Specialized offers a legitimate downhill bike that costs less than half the price of its top-shelf Demo 8.

Specialized recently dropped a web edit on its YouTube channel showing off its new Status series, budget-minded DH bikes with race geometry and respectable spec. The new bikes replace the long-running Big Hit series, and do so with slightly slacker geometry (64.5 HTA), a slightly higher BB (14 inches) and are available in two builds—the $3,100 Satus II with a dual-crown fork and the $2,450 Status II, with a single-crown coil-sprung X-Fusion fork.

It should be noted that the Rock Shox Boxxer/Vivid spec shown in the video are replaced in production bikes with somewhat (okay, a lot) less spectacular Rock Shox Domain Dual Crown fork and Fox Vanilla RC rear shock. But still, a low-and-wide Specialized-brand cockpit, FSA cranks, Avid Elixir 5 brakes and—above all—FSR chassis built with Specialized's M4 alloy, for this price, is nothing to sneeze at. Bone-stock, the new Status bikes are ready for season in the park, and with a couple easy upgrades down the line—like upgrading to that Boxxer, perhaps—will help whittle away some weight and pick up some improved-traction suspension action and make them that much more competitive on the racecourse, too.